Mayor Gavin Newsom
Mayor Gavin Newsom and Municipal Transportation Agency Director Nathaniel Ford held a roundtable discussion today April 11, 2007 at City Hall that focused on various San Francisco ... more

Mayor Gavin Newsom
Mayor Gavin Newsom and Municipal Transportation Agency Director Nathaniel Ford held a roundtable discussion today April 11, 2007 at City Hall that focused on various San Francisco ... more

Photo: Michael Maloney

Angry Muni riders vent frustrations at mayor's forum

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San Francisco residents, exasperated by late buses, rude drivers and an unreliable Municipal Railway system, crammed a Chinatown auditorium Saturday to demand that Mayor Gavin Newsom explain just how he'll fix the troubled transit system.

Newsom had hoped to use the public "policy discussion" to discuss a wide range of transportation issues facing the city -- he managed to get in a good plug for his Central Subway Project, which many people supported -- but Muni took heat for its recent problems.

"I don't know that you know how poorly Muni serves San Francisco," said Elliot Gage, 61. The Visitacion Valley resident challenged Newsom to give up his limo for a month and ride Muni exclusively. Newsom briefly bristled at the suggestion.

"The reality is, I'm a mayor who rides Muni," he said, noting that he'd spent some of his boyhood riding city buses. "Do I use it exclusively? No. But I use it. ... I'm the real deal."

Gage, an office worker who said he does not own a car and spends an hour commuting each way to his job near City Hall, was not mollified.

"I think the mayor needs a visceral, direct contact with the problem," he told The Chronicle after the mayor's forum.

With almost 700,000 riders each day, Muni is the Bay Area's busiest transit system, and fixing it won't be easy. Enacting any kind of serious reform has vexed Newsom and his predecessors, and even the system's staunchest critics agree that chronic funding and staffing shortages, plus congested streets, have contributed to Muni's problems.

Several hundred people filled the auditorium at Jean Parker Elementary School in Chinatown. Newsom roamed the center aisle, microphone in hand Phil Donohue-style. He was by turns ingratiating host and resident interrogator, bureaucratic wonk and center stage diva. He occasionally sprinted to the far corners of the room to let people use the microphone, allowed a young girl to cheerily say "hello" to the audience, and modestly cast his eyes downward when speakers praised his tenure as mayor.

"Thank you for being the people's mayor," one Visitacion Valley resident told him.

Newsom's municipal "policy discussion" -- the sixth he's held in recent months, and the first dedicated exclusively to transportation issues -- was a chance for residents to vent their frustrations, proffer opinions and ask questions of key city officials.

"We will not manipulate you by answering a question when we don't know the answer," Newsom pledged at the start of the two-hour forum. He was often as critical of Muni as the people in the audience, and he made it clear he was not satisfied with the system's performance.

Much of the mayor's discussion centered on the Central Subway Project, which city officials hope will eventually carry more than 90,000 riders to Chinatown each day.

Newsom fielded questions selected from those jotted down by dozens of people during the forum. He shuffled through the white cards, rephrasing some questions, asking and directly answering others, directing still others to his staff.

The Chronicle has filed a Public Records Act request for all of the questions submitted to the mayor; that request is pending.

The mayor posed the first and last question of the day, and he sprinkled in many others of his own invention.

He started with a jab aimed directly at transit officials, taking them to task for service problems that have bedeviled the T-Third, which opened in April. The line stretches from the city's southern border through Visitacion Valley to the Market Street tunnel downtown. When it opened, Muni eliminated the popular 15-Third bus line and adjusted other lines, setting off unintended delays throughout the system.

"We went through 15 years of planning, everybody is excited ... and then chaos," the mayor said.

Newsom hoped to use the forum as an opportunity to look ahead and spent much of the time touting his plan for the Central Subway. The line would link Little Hollywood and Visitacion Valley with Union Square and Chinatown.

John Funghi, a Municipal Transportation Agency project manager, said the proposed subway would speed up riders' commutes. A trip from Fourth and King streets to Chinatown that now takes 20 minutes would drop to seven. Prompted by Newsom, Funghi said the project would cost between $1.22 billion and $1.39 billion. Construction would begin in 2010.

Many of those who filled the room wore neon pink stickers in support of the project, earning a gracious "Thank you" from Newsom as well as his encouragement for their continued advocacy. But both supporters and critics of the idea voiced concerns that such a huge project could adversely affect businesses in Chinatown, particularly during its construction.

"Is this meeting just a way for you to push for the Central Subway? No, but I support this plan, and I want to keep it on track," Funghi said.

The mayor also offered a spontaneous appraisal of a few inquiries.

"Great question," he said to a Richmond District resident wondering if the Central Subway line could be extended.

"I love this question," he said concerning an inquiry about how many city employees rode Muni to the day's forum. Among those who raised their hands was Nathaniel Ford, executive director of the Municipal Transportation Agency. He spent much of the morning on the hot seat, explaining Muni's recent shortcomings.

Ford told the audience that transit safety was the highest priority. He said Muni operators with high absenteeism or a record of passenger complaints are being closely scrutinized. He promised that Muni's on-time performance -- now at 70 percent -- would rise. He said he wants to see 85 percent of buses and trains running on time.

Two hours after the forum started, Newsom did something that many in the audience wished could be accomplished by Muni overall: He drove the event in on time and with relatively few skid marks.

While some praised the mayor for giving them a chance to speak, others took him to task for not giving them more time.

"A lot of people wrote down questions, but the mayor picked the questions and asked the questions," said Donna Chan of the Chinatown Community Development Center. "My only real criticism was it was too short. There should have been more time for people to share."